Aria

An interesting idea, to have 10 prominent film makers direct short films to famous opera arias -"like classical MTV" someone wrote. UGH. The images are nothing but gratuitous sex and nudity throughout. The only one I liked was the one everyone else hated, the one with Buck Henry...it was the ony one that was remotely close to a true plot. I also liked the one that was shot in B&W. But neither is enough to recommend seeing the whole thing. The writeup raves about "Bridget Fonda's electrifyingly erotic sex scene"....uh, pretty dull! The other hook on the box was Elizabeth Hurley - well, yeah she's gorgeous but she looks nothing like she looks now. We had to go back and look for her and we still couldn't believe it was her!

Oh, other recent standout films:
My Life Without Me - What a gut wrench. Beautiful. Sad. Oh so sad. Makes you want to hug everyone around you in case they won't be there next week.
21 Grams - Outstanding cast, incredible acting, good story, a leeetle too much jumping around, but it still worked, kept my attention. I was expecting as usual to be blown away by Sean Penn, and while he was excellent (very subdued) it was Benicio Del Toro that was most impressive. He was really scary, he was so close to the edge at certain moments it made me nervous.
American Splendor - well done, entertaining
Clay Pigeons - Vince Vaughn stole the show, would like to see more of him!
The First Year - documentary that follows 6 teachers in their first year of teaching. Very well done, touching, inspiring, infuriating!
Spellbound - documentary that follows I think 8 junior high aged kids on their way to the national spelling bee. Really great! Amazing to see these kids and where they came from.
Better than Sex - watched it awhile ago, but liked it enough to watch it a second time after Marco came home late and I'd just finished watching it.

Well I guess I'm a bit overdue. We just watched 'Jump Tomorrow'. I thought it was really sweet. It's just your basic serendipity love story, but it's got really great style and color and the two leads are just too irresistible. Amy Sedaris (my new 'gotta know everything about her' subject) has about 5 seconds on screen in this movie and she's adorable too. I found out just by chance, after the fact, that she's in it. I'm a newly indoctrinated Strangers with Candy fiend. Addict. Whatever. We just watched the first 2 seasons last week and I had to buy them. It's the kind of show that is just so well done, so well written and so full of detail that one has to watch it again and again. I've been visiting jerriblank.com almost daily and reading everything and finding out how much got by me! I can't wait to watch them again, and then I will watch them with commentary, because those guys are just so durn clever!